Jason's POV

For miles around, all you could see was flames. Destruction. Death. Buildings were completely destroyed. Cars sat abandoned on the street, in complete disarray. Not a person was to be found in all the city, not even a body. And should one look above, they would see that the sky was a crimson red, as though it had been painted with blood.

Jason should have been horrified. He stood atop a one of the few structures that wasn't blasted to the point of collapse. And all around him, in the town he had once lived in, there wasn't a single piece of land that wasn't torn apart, not a living soul to be seen.

But this wasn't what captured his attention. It was the creatures that had caused it. They were flying through the sky and rampaging through the streets. Dragons tore through the sky, breathing infernos from their gaping maws every time they came near the ground. Beasts of all kinds ran rampant through the town of Domino, mercilessly stomping any evidence there had been of life into the ground.

These monstrosities, these demons, were what was terrifying him. He was also feeling anger, frustration and helplessness at the fact that he couldn't do anything about it. And yet, it all seemed strangely familiar to him.

Woo woo…

That noise again! Jason took out his deck, and looked at that same card that had helped to win him the entrance exam. It stared at him, with a sort of pleading look. With a sudden realization, he knew what to do. Jason took out his duel disk, and slipped his deck into the deck slot, and the disk automatically turned on as he strapped it his arm. He drew the first card and slapped it on a monster card slot.

"I summon Spell Striker!" Jason bellowed. His voice seemed to echo into the carnage ridden abyss. The little warrior appeared in front of him. It slashed the crooked rod it carried with him in a midair intricate pattern. As it did, it left a thin blue flame trailing after it, showing what it was drawing. And Jason recognized what it was. A pentagram.

The pentagram filled with blackness, and grew until eclipsed all else. The darkness spread to engulf everything, including Jason and his monster. A face appeared before him. A crooked mouth was bent into a seemingly endless smile that radiated evil. It's eyes were blood red, the same color Jason had seen in the sky not a moment ago. (Think Disturbed's mascot, 'The Guy').

It stretched its mouth open to speak. 'What you have seen, is what is to come. Be warned mortal. The inevitable is coming. The Orichalcos will rise again, and wreak vengeance upon your world, NOW!'

Jason's eyes shot open, and he gasped for air. He could hear, almost feel the demonic figure's last words echoing in his mind. He looked around, trying to get his bearings, but there was something covering his eyes. But from what could tell he was lying on a soft bed, thin cotton sheets covering him.

He tried to sit up and figure out what was going on, but something seemed to be weighing him down. His right arm felt as though hundreds of needles were piercing the skin over and over again.

His head fell back and hit the pillow. As it did, heard a groan coming from the right side of the bed. He looked. Liz was laying there, curled up against him, with a tight hold on his left arm.

He allowed himself a small smile. Seeing her laying there with him…it felt strange but comforting to have her at his side like this. He carefully pulled away from her grasp and sat up.

He slipped of the thing that had been blocking his vision. It was a small white strip of cloth, the sort of thing they use to cover someone's eyes if they'd just had laser eye surgery. He lifted his head to look around properly.

He was in a dark room filled with basic medical equipment, but not much else. A filthy bedpan had been tossed carelessly to the floor to the left of the bed. There were syringes lined up on the table that was pushed up against the opposite wall. Bandages were piled in a corner, and empty bags of water lay scattered over the floor. There was a window right in his line of vision, and moonlight flooded the room. It hurt his eyes a bit to look directly at it, but pain were good. It was reassuring to know that he could still feel.

However, he knew he should try and figure out where he actually was and not just understand his immediate surroundings. He carefully pulled away from Liz's grasp and sat up. He gasped, feeling the fiery pain grow in his right arm. He looked at it, using the light of the moon for illumination and cringed upon seeing what had happened to it.

A long scar spiraled down his arm, curving around his and the reappearing lower down from the other side, continuing till it reached the end of his fist. The strange thing was it looked very…deliberate. Like someone had carved it there on purpose.

"Rather fascinating, isn't it?"

Jason whirled around to see a man standing at the open doorway. Most of his appearance was disguised in shadow. From what he could see, the man looked to be some sort of doctor, or professor or doctor thanks to his bleach white lab coat which covered his entire body. And even though the shadow masked his entire face, the rounded owl eye glasses that rested on the bridge of his nose shone in the dim light. The reflection hurt Jason's own eyes.

"Who are you?" Jason asked in a slow careful tone.

"At the moment my name is not important." The man said. "So for the time being, you may call me Tesla."

"Alright fine, Tesla. What are you planning to do to me next?"

Tesla reached up to stroke his chin. "Hm. Interesting sequence of questions. I would've expected something more along the lines of, 'Where am I' or 'Release me'. Maybe even that other blunt phrase most people are so fond of these days. What was it? Ah yes, 'Go to hell.'"

Jason was quickly growing irritated with the man. "Why did you do this to me?" He asked, quite a bit more loudly this time.

Tesla turned his attention back to the short tempered teen in front of him. "What makes you think I did that to you?"

Jason scoffed. "Oh please. You're the only one here! Do I really look that stupid?"

Even though he couldn't see Tesla's face, Jason knew he was smirking. "Well that would depend wouldn't it? Have you looked in a mirror lately?" He tossed a hand mirror in Jason's direction, and he caught it deftly. Keeping one eye on the smart ass before him, Jason looked at his reflection. His jaw was hanging loosely as though it had been broken, and his nose was slightly crooked. There was a large bandage above his left eye.

He looked up at the smug doctor. "You're lucky I found you when I did."

Jason's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. "And why's that?"

Tesla snorted. "Because considering what happened, I don't think you would've lasted much longer."

If Jason's eyebrows could've gone any higher, they would've. "Care to fill me in about that?"

Tesla frowned. "You really don't remember do you?"

Jason shook his head.

Tesla sighed. "Well, you might want to find a seat. This might be a rather disturbing story to you."

Jason took his place on the edge of the bed he'd been resting on for god knows how long, and listened as Tesla told his story.

Alexis's POV

"Hey, did you see anyone else come through here?"

He frowned, attempting to think. "No, why?"

"Well, upstairs this kid named Syrus said the one who saved me was in here and-

He grinned. "Yup, that'd be me!"

My eyes widened for the second time in five minutes. "Wait, you saved me?"

His grin widened. "Yup! You're lookin' at Jaden Yuki, next King of Games, and your savior for last evening!"

She knocked him down as they began to make out passionately on the floor.

At least that's what she wanted to do. But all she could do was stand there and blush furiously.

Jaden looked at her closely. "Hey, you alright? You look pretty red."

Alexis jumped. She couldn't believe she had just thought about throwing herself at him like that. She barely even knew him at all!

"I-I'm f-fine!" She said, voice cracking. What the hell! Now she was stammering too!? She never stammered, least of all in front of a boy!

Jaden stood up from the table, his breakfast forgotten. "You want me to walk you back to your dorm? You had it pretty rough last night."

Her blush deepened to a fiery red. He was concerned about her. "But you're not allowed on at the girls dorms!"

Jaden grinned. "Trust me when I say, I'm not gonna get caught. So let's go!"

He took her hand, and Alexis felt faint for an instant before being pulled towards the door. She followed, feeling very light as Jaden dragged her along.

"Hey!"

She was snapped back to reality by a very high pitched noise that she recognized instantly, having heard it only a few minutes beforehand.

Syrus was up on top of the balcony to the dorm. He eyed Alexis suspiciously. "Where ya going Jay?"

"I'm just taking Alexis back to her dorm. I'll be fine, see ya later!" And with that, Jaden took off before Syrus could answer.

Jason's POV

Jason was beginning to feel tired. He'd been carrying Liz on his back for what seemed like hours, but he still couldn't seem to find the infirmary, or the Academy for that matter.

"How hard can it be to find a place the size of a friggin shopping mall in the middle of a forest?" He panted. He dropped to his knees and carefully placed Liz on the ground in front of him. He slapped her cheek lightly. "Liz? Liz you okay?"

She stirred but didn't wake up. Whatever that creep had given her it was some strong stuff. He squeezed her hand in both of his and looked at her face. A few freckles decorated her nose. Her narrow cheekbones accented the dirty blonde of her hair. But what had really gotten Jason the first time he saw her was her eyes. He knew it sounded corny, but he'd been blown away by them. They were both sky blue, with flecks of gold in them.

He lifted her head to his face. She felt so warm. He hugged her to his chest, feeling afraid to let go.

"And that's all I remember." Jason said finishing his story, but leaving out what exactly he'd been thinking.

"Hm." Tesla said thoughtfully. "Well, I'll fill you in on what I saw…"

Tesla's POV

Tesla was crouched just on the edge of the clearing that Jason was kneeled in. He didn't want to intrude in the boy's little moment there, but for safeties sake he had to guard the boy. Not many people came into the forest at this hour, and this was when they came out.

A shadow flickered by behind Jason. That's what got Tesla's attention, not just because he knew what it was, but because Jason crumpled to the ground a split second later. Tesla grimaced. That always happened when they were around. It gave them the advantage. It materialized in front of Jason, facing away from Tesla. This one was rather small, not even worth an arrow.

It was looked like a large dog or wolf, in shape at least. It had an unnaturally long tale, about half the length of its body. Covered from head to toe in jet black fur, they shined in the moonlight. Malicious red eyes eyed at the pair of teens, a beast sizing up it's next meal. The creature parted its mouth, needle sharp teeth that overlapped, face curved into a sneer.

Tesla unsheathed the sword at his belt as quietly as he could, as the thing lowered it's head to Liz's head. He shifted his weight to his other foot getting ready to pounce, and a twig broke. The wolf straightened slowly. Tesla had hoped this would happen. He ducked behind a tree, making more noise this time. The wolf whipped around raced towards his hiding spot.

Tesla timed it, before he could feel the dark wolf coming right up beside him he swung his arm around that side of the tree. He felt the sword thud into a hard surface that didn't quite seem like the bark of the tree. He smirked, and turned around the look at his kill. The weapon had stabbed the creature against the bark where it's heart would be, but it had only been pinned. There was only one way to kill them. He reached into his coat, and retrieved a dagger, sharpened to the point and engraved with runes. He flipped the knife so that it extended along his forearm, and stabbed it through the wolf's head. It fell limp, and burned to a crisp, showing the skeleton before that burned too.

Tesla sighed, and turned to the near-victims before him. He had harder trip home than usual.

Present

Jason turned the new found facts in his mind. It was a far-fetched thing to consider, but he already seemed to be going crazy with the weird dream and what happened at the entrance exam. This interested him.

"Okay, let's say I believe all this, and that you saved me from some dark, demonic creature. Let me just ask you one question."

Tesla's mouth curved into the ghost of a smile. "And what might that be?"

Jason stared into his face, testing him. He didn't seem to be a very sociable guy, and seemed rather cocky. He attempted to stare the man down, before replying:

"Can you teach me to fight?"

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And you should know, I was in a bit of a slump due to lack of reviews, but one of my favorite authors picked me up again. So look up KiriraGlitter and read some of her stories. I owe you one Kirira chan!

I'd also like to thank my faithful readers: WhiteAsukalover, Immortal Fallen Angel, EmperorDraco7, cherubchan, inu-yusukekaiba102, Azul Angel1251596, GameMasterX-treme, and of course KiriraGlitter. You guys are great!